Subversive Spaces at Compton Verney…continued

13 June – 6 September

I made it to Compton Verney.

Beneath the surface of the family home and the bustling streets of the city lie repressed the histories, unspoken secrets and half- remembered dreams. The Surrealists sought to unearth these hidden narratives that reside in our everyday spaces and express them in art and literature.

Unpicking some of the connections between Surrealist ideas of the past and the way in which they are made use of more recently, SUBVERSIVE SPACES focuses on the contemporary artists who show how the forces of the psyche are played out in the changing spaces we live in.

Subversive Spaces is split into two distinct spaces PSYCHIC INTERIORS using the themes of psychic disturbance, anxiety and hysteria-to explore the spaces of the home and WANDERING THE CITY follows the the surrealists preoccupation with walking around the streets as a means to discover hidden social spaces as well as unconscious fears and desires. (Compton Verney)

I have posted the pieces that cried out to me. All but one of them came from the Psychic Interiors section (not much of a surprise there really). Schinwald (a Viennese Artist) says of his film piece bellow:

‘A film about the translation of a psychological contortion into a physical convulsion’.

For me, the other disturbing aspect was of being watched, whether the Bearded Gentleman is interpreted as being Freud or not, his presence here is chilling. Towards the end of the film this character’s demeanor seemed to be one of excitement. This created a hellish environment for the female character to experience her (possible) hysteria, there appeared to be no help available as she continues to convulse closer to her own destruction within this domestic scene.

Markus Schinwald-1st part Conditional, 2004

Markus Schinwald- Contortionists (Rachel), 2003

Mona Hatoum-Incommunicado 1993

*shit! where do you put the baby?*…..this was the thought that went through my mind and it wasnt a humorous one, it was a serious thought that was some what unsettling and gruesome -truth be told- only harm could come to the small person being placed in this cot, what an awful start to have. (Domestic objects taking on the possibilities if violence, pain and even torture)

Lucy Gunning-Climbing around my room, 1993

This performance was fascinating on so many levels, from the route the dancer took around the room to the bruises and marks that adorned the parts of her body made visible to the audience (arms, legs, feet, face and hands-battle scars from taking on this room) this was almost endurance. Exploring a room, sure, but ultimately trapped inside it? and perhaps herself.
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Sample City preview cut01

Calin Dan-Sample City, 2003 (original is 11 mins running time)

Calin Dan’s protagonist, wandering in and out of Bucharest with a door on his back….re framing the ordinary act of walking as a performance on order to dispute the fabric of everyday life.(Compton Verney)

BUT, theres much more going on in this film than the simple wanderings of a man and his door. The artist shows us aspects of a city-ravaged by poverty and a cruel history of dictatorship-that we wouldnt usually see, or perhaps we just dont see anymore. Dan moves through the extremes of the city. Through him we see the sad and the hopeful.

Tony Oursler-The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Never Seen, 1995
I have saved the best ’till last!! What to say about Oursler? His installations are
playful yet dark. ‘Unheimliche’? absolutely. However these projected faces become my friends. I cant help it.
The woman under the sofa, with her face squashed into the floor, tells us what a wonderful *thing* she is seeing…constantly telling the viewer that he/she needs to see it, this wonderous…??????

Over all I enjoyed the exhibit. I was relieved to find the more contemporary along side the more recognizable-some how re- contextualizing all of the work. What I found difficult was a practical concern, that of noise pollution. Its understandable, the space was undersized given the number of artists on exhibit here, but sound bleeding from one work into quite areas was a sad side effect. It reminded me of the importance of the space around a piece of work that often only requires air.

Surrealism and Contemporary Art: Subversive Spaces at Compton Verney

13 June – 6 September

I will make it to this exhibit BUT as usual it will be right at the end of its run (not blogger friendly or helpful-I know) so here’s the details and links. I like this venue, its remote but pretty and the the exhibition spaces are traditional for the permanent collection and contemporary for the visiting exhibits. I have issues with the hanging techniques in the traditional spaces, but that’s by the by.

This exhibition brings together the pioneers of Surrealism and a generation of younger artists who continue to find inspiration in the intellectual and aesthetic origins of the movement. This exhibition looks at two areas: Wandering the City and Psychic Interiors: The first of these examines the artist walking through the city as a means to discover hidden social spaces as well as unconscious fears and desires. Psychic Interiors investigates houses, bedrooms, hotels, tunnels and labyrinths where the space portrayed becomes a place of unease, constraint and mystery. Compton Verney website

Lucy Gunning-Climbing around my room. 1993
Video production still

Anna Gaskell-Untitled (Hide) #47 1999
Photograph on paper

Wilkinson summer show and ‘Bad Animals’ at Transition Gallery

Firstly, I realise that I am posting about these shows after they have finished (not to smart, if a reader wants to see the shows). Sadly I couldn’t get down to London earlier, however these are galleries that I would recommend keeping an eye on. Add them to your bookmarks and check in with them for future shows. They wont disappoint.

WILKINSON-SUMMER SHOW

This gallery is a White Cube kind of space, and a good one to. It was good to see a summer show that wasnt overly packed out, all of the works had room to breath and so did I. There were some really interesting Artists included and worth checking out.

Joan Jonas
FUTURE TENSE reading Dante 2008
video
Jonas uses her own vernacular when reading from Dantes Inferno, coupled with every day images which ultimately take on a creepy identity-intentional or not. Jonas strives to convey the atmosphere and far reaching themes within Dantes writing, beyond that of the imaginings of hell and consequences, without illustrating the text. I can relate to the Artists concerns here, I see little point in Illustrating Dante but there are images and fragments of horrific interplay between the characters that deserve to be drawn out visually and cry out for manipulation.

Jimmy de Sana Soap Suds. 1980

“A photograph is how much you want to lie, how far you want to stretch the truth about the object. And, as photography is always based on real objects, it lends itself, by means of technique or manipulation, to explorations of what may appear to be an absence of reality, balancing on an ambiguous line between concrete and abstract space, between reality and illusion in a way that no other medium is able to do.” (an interview with Diego Cortez in 1986:)

TRANSITION GALLERY-BAD ANIMALS
Again this exhibit has ended, but the artists and work within are really interesting. Some of my favorites are bellow and any opportunity to see them should be taken.
The Space is intimate but perfect for the kind of uneasy playful pieces that go to make up ‘Bad animals’

‘Bad animals do unspeakable things. Refusing to be subjugated to our domesticated will and resisting cuteness, the animals on show here are more likely to bite the hand that feeds them’ (Transition Gallery Website)

Followers of this blog will know that I love to see art that seems beautiful on the surface but pretty horrific once scratched.

Alli Sharma
This painting is from the Bat series. Harmless beasts?

Cathy Pilkington
Harmless animals, but they engage in unspeakable acts.

UPCOMING EXHIBIT AT TRANSITION

Paul Kindersley
She wanted his soul, but he could only give her his blood
4-27 Sep
Private View and First Thursdays Late opening Thurs 3 Sep 6-9pm

Site specific, this exhibit references 1970′s vampire movies.

‘She wanted his soul, but he could only give her his blood is a new work specially made for Transition. It references sexy 70s vampire movies in a form of shrine to stolen film memories and real life encounters with the cult Germen actor Udo Kier. In a charged environment formed from sounds, looks and props from Kier’s films the viewer becomes the vampire with the film as the ultimately doomed, but struggling to keep alive, victim. ‘ (Transition website)

Really looking forward to this and promise to go way before it ends.

the space between~revisited

Now that THE SPACE BETWEEN have posted excellent documentation of the exhibition I visited a couple of months ago, I can post a blog of my experience of it, along with that of a friend of mine. The exhibition was at the very apt, St Pancras Church Crypt, London. See original post here.

Kate Street ‘Bird in the hand’ 2009

My friend, made some interesting observations of THE SPACE BETWEEN exhibit (more interesting than mine) and many of them were related to the space, unexpected and at times unnerving and uneven under foot, it only went to enhance the viewing of the work in most cases, leaving the rest as peculiar scattered objects. Perhaps that worked too, except that I came away convinced that I had missed something in the musty darkness. I bugged my friend afterward ‘Do you think we saw everything?’ Because the photographs I have included here really don’t do the environment justice~IT WAS DARK, and we were given torches (which I couldn’t work-but that’s another story)

Guest Blogger-Megan Disley
Having never been interested in art or attending any exhibition of sorts, this was an entirely new experience for me. The idea of artwork being viewed in a crypt initially seemed quite disturbing, however the ambiance of the building itself and just the knowledge of knowing where I actually was added a whole new dimension to the viewing experience. In a space where the worlds of the living and dead entwine, it physically immerses the viewer into a space between.
The pieces exhibited were both powerful and thought provoking, in particular “Sluice” by Kate McCgwire. Pigeons are often perceived as a bane of society, by using their feathers to create this “effluent–like” flood it added to the repulsion and unease of my viewing experience. However at the same time I felt myself marveling at the beauty and wonder of the display of this familiar material. It is clear a lot of dedication had gone into creating this piece and I feel the artist accomplished exposing me, as a viewer, to the macabre truth that lurks behind that of the familiar. (M. Disley)

Sluice 2009, Site-specific installation

Marilene Oliver ‘Family portrait’ 2003

I immediately connected to the body images with in this exhibit-no great surprise there, but pleasing for me as I was so eager to see the pigeon feather instillation and sculpture I thought the rest may pale a touch.
In fact the over all feel of the exhibit was much as it claimed to be, a space for what might be, a place of transition observed and possibly disturbed by the viewer. I certainly felt a sadness for some of the works, stuck in a state of flux, surely a nightmarish situation and one that, today, I can relate to.

Kate McCgwire ‘Rile’ 2009

Thanks to Megan.

the male question

The male has been cropping up in my drawings.
On reflection is this male a counter weight to the female or just a very natural progression? Perhaps it is more interesting to think about why I havnt bothered with the male before now. Well I never saw the use for him, while the body shape naturally became female (and what do I know about the male?)

Of course now, as I open up my practice to an element of the narrative, which may well involve more than one character, the male had to happen.

If a central concern is mortality (and I have recently given in to this as a truth) then why confine it to the female image unless I decide to have her represent the human/life. Its an idea I have played with since her development, and after I attempted to destroy her, which was really about seeing just how far I could push the image visually before the form became lost and meaningless to the viewer- too abstract in all aspects-it was clear that I was happier with this newly emerged, mostly developed female body form.

But is there a real need for him in my practice now? What does this male give to the female and is there any interplay there at all? I have always been of the mind that if it doesnt need to be there throw it out, not a fan of clutter and over the past year I have applied this to the work, on the other hand perhaps the male needs more development time, the female took two years for me to develop, clearly the male has come to me fully formed as an off shoot from the female in terms of his rendering so I have had much less time to figure out what part I want him to play.

Looking at the drawings it seems that she is far to engrossed in her own situation to notice the male, to acknowledge his existence at all. Dont read to much into that, she has always been isolated within her situation.

Don Juan in Hell-Baudelaire
When Don Juan had descended to the waves
Of Hell, and given coin for Charon’s chores,
A beggar with Antisthenes’ proud gaze
Took an avenger’s grip around the oars.

A great stone man, stiff in his uniform,
Was the stem helmsman on that gloomy run,
But our calm hero, bent upon his sword,
Stared at the wake, and gave his glance to none.

So above are a couple of drawings from yesterday, just playing with the idea of the male, the forms differences and similarities to the female and how the two could, or will relate to each other. I certainly don’t feel the need to push the male to his limits as I once did the female, I am now in a place in my practice where I am more concerned with the female/male playing out the themes of mortality and human emotional and physical connections and psychological states.

I am very aware that I have not answered my own question. (blogging can be a dangerous pass time for me)

PS
I have talked allot on this blog about the development of the female form-here’s an example of her starting point~toes!

2006-graphite on paper
As ever, comments are encouraged.

my beautifully uncanny acquisition…

‘Uncanny III’ Joanne Baker

Joanne Baker is a West Midlands Mixed Media Artist and recent graduate of Coventry University (BA Fine Art)

Joanne’s work is subtle and beautiful but always offers the viewer a glimpse of an unsettling strangeness-an uncanny, just under the surface.

I am lucky enough to be able to call ‘Uncanny III’ mine.
Have a look at the rest of Joanne’s work by clicking on the banner bellow.